What Winners Know

Whether you're a chess master, a Ping-Pong player, a guitar picker, or just a run-of-the-mill businessman, rule number one of winning remains the same: Surround yourself with people who are wiser, more accomplished, and just plain smarter than you are.

I've tried to do that consistently over my career, and I've been richly rewarded for it. I've worked with some of the best writers, editors, athletes, and businesspeople in the world. And I like to think that a little bit of their wisdom and knowledge has rubbed off. So this month, in honor of our Winner's Issue, and with Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew Brees heading the lineup, I thought I'd try to distill some of what these people have taught me into tasty shots of wisdom. Here's what the winners I've met all seem to know.

Winners know what they don't know. This might sound like a contradiction, but if you know what you don't know, you can go out and learn it, or find someone who can guide you through it. Real ignorance is not a lack of knowledge or education, but a lack of curiosity. The moment you think you know everything, you're doomed. Before you make any big move, always ask yourself, What don't I know about what I'm getting into? Then go find out.

Winners know how to hire winners. As I said above, surrounding yourself with highly accomplished coworkers is the best way to become highly accomplished yourself. Unfortunately, when it comes to hiring, many men feel threatened by smart candidates and tend to want a supporting cast of people who won't question their choices or challenge their supremacy. Exactly wrong. I always try to bring people on board who are smarter than I am. (Bonus: This creates an enormous hiring pool.)

Winners know there's always something new to win at. Whether you're Sportsman of the Year, or Salesman of the Year, you're bound to be at the top of your game for only a few years before times change. Today's victories soon fade into the glory days of yore. Winners focus on tomorrow's challenges.

Winners know how to dive in. Life isn't a distance event; it's a series of sprints. And most sprints are won at the moment the gun goes off. Many of us spend our time worrying about failure. Winners don't care about failure, because they know that in no time they'll be diving into their next chance for success.

And here's another lesson, courtesy of Drew Brees: A winner competes, whether it's in a simple reflex drill or in the game of a lifetime. When we were hanging out with Brees in the off-season, we expected him to be a little laid-back. After all, he was still in the winner's circle of the NFL--and was the very definition of what a QB contributes to the ultimate victory. Yet we were in the gym when he did a simple reflex drill with some other signal callers from around the league: You'd have thought the entire season was on the line. For Brees, it was. When he's up against the competition--any competition--he goes hard, or not at all.

Read on for more wisdom from David Zinczenko--in 140 characters or less...

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